He pulled his phone out in time to capture a video of the whale surfacing a few feet from his boat.

“It was very exciting,” he said.

The sighting astonished scientists, who said it is the same juvenile right whale spotted near Panama City Beach earlier this month.

In a 2008 file photo, a North Atlantic right whale peers up from the water as another whale passes behind in Cape Cod Bay near Provincetown, Mass.(Photo: Stephan Savoia/AP)

Gretchen Lovewell, stranding investigations program manager at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, called the sighting “shocking.”

“It’s an extremely rare occurrence,” she said. “I always get a little bit nervous because I worry about them running into trouble.”

The last time a right whale was seen in the Gulf of Mexico was in 2006. Only five right whales have been reported in the Gulf since 1963.

Right whales can typically be found between Cape Cod and Nova Scotia, but females travel to Florida’s northeast coast in the fall to give birth and nurse their calves.

Some 360 right whales are left in the wild, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Right whales can live for more than 100 years and use baleen plates to feed on zooplankton. Females give birth every three to five years and nurse their young for about a year. Adults are 45-50 feet long and can weigh up to 55 tons.

Right whales are dark and do not have a dorsal fin, making them difficult for boaters to see.

In a 2008 file photo, the blowhole is visible on a North Atlantic right whale in Cape Cod Bay near Provincetown, Mass.(Photo: Stephan Savoia/AP)

They are known to spend a significant amount of time at the water’s surface and appear to be oblivious to nearby dangers.

Roughly one-third of right whale deaths are caused by boating collisions or entanglement in fishing nets. Seventeen right whales died in 2017, Lovewell said, and many of the deaths were caused by snow crab fishing gear. Some 80 percent of right whales show signs of previous entanglement, she added.

“The human impact on these animals is huge,” she said.

If you happen upon a right whale, Lovewell recommends boaters put their vessel in neutral and remove all fishing gear from the water.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission asks boaters to report large whale sightings to 1-877-WHALE-HELP.

A baby hawk was adopted by a nest of bald eagles at Shoal Harbor Migratory Bird Sanctuary in British Colombia. The species are usually natural enemies, but have become family in this rare case.
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